Accepting
by ekroman
Summary: Artie is finding it hard to accept that he need his friends to help him with some things. "But sometimes it's hard for me to admit that I actually do need you guys to help me." No slash!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: No I don't own Glee. If I did, Artie and Tina would still be dating and Artie's ReWalk wouldn't have broken.

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Artie Abrams wasn't one to complain over the small things in life. Being in a wheelchair had made him see things different from his peers. Even his fellow glee clubbers didn't quite understand the struggles he had to go through every single day, but he didn't blame or even envy them. Yeah, he would rather be able to walk and run and dance like Tina or Mercedes or Kurt or any other member of the Glee club, but he had come to terms with his condition and the fact that it was a life lasting one. Being in a wheelchair had taught Artie a lot of things, and he was very grateful for those valuable life lessons. Like being happy for what he had. On the days where tying his own shoes would be hard, he would remember how lucky he was to have the full function of his arms, so that he could tie his own shoes MOST of the time, and if he had a problem with getting his wheelchair into a room, he would remind himself of those without a wheelchair. Kids who would never get to see anything but where someone had left them. Kids who would be thrilled to have access to a wheelchair just once a month. All this usually helped Artie when he was feeling a little down, but today nothing seemed to help.

Artie was wheeling himself down the hallways of McKinley High School. He reached his locker with a few minutes to spare before he had to be at glee clubs rehearsals. He looked at his watch and realized that he wouldn't be able to make it on time. It would take him at least five minutes to wheel himself all the way to the choir room, and he only had 2 minutes to get there. He sighed, finding it hard to understand why this was bothering him so much today. Mr. Schue would know why Artie was a few minutes late, and it wasn't as if he was going to be the only one, but unlike the others, Artie didn't choose to be late. If the others were late, they would just walk faster or even run to make it on time, but Artie couldn't do those things. He had to be careful with his speed, because if he went to fast, his wheelchair could topple, making him even more late. He was just about to get out his cell phone and text Tina to tell her that he would be a little late, when a voice sounded from behind him.

"Hey, need any help?" Artie twisted his upper body slightly to find Kurt standing about 10 feet behind him.

"Yeah, can you tell Mr. Schue that I'm going to be a few minutes late? I just need to put my books away before I can roll over to the choir room." Artie turned around to open his locker, but fumbled slightly with the lock. Great. Just great. It was going to be one of those days where everything went wrong and nothing went right. They probably had to do a dance assignment in glee club this week, just to mess up his life further. No! Of course they wouldn't be doing a dance assignment. Mr. Schue and the other glee clubbers respected Artie's condition, and none of them would do anything to hurt him on purpose. Yes, some of them could be a little insensitive once in a while, but he didn't blame them. Most of them had never been friends with a paraplegic before, and frankly he had been the same before the accident. Gawking at people in wheelchairs and not hiding his curiosity. And truth be told, Artie was happy to have them in his life. He had lost most of his friends when he was put in a wheelchair. He had had to change schools, because his old school weren't exactly build to kids in wheelchair, what with his classroom being on the second floor with no elevator.

"Look, that wasn't what I meant, and you know it." Kurt interrupted Artie's train of thought. He turned his chair around to face his friend that had now moved closer.

"You're right." he said, turning around to give the locker one last try. "I know what you mean." He finally got his locker open. "But sometimes it's hard for me to admit that I actually do need you guys to help me." He closed the locker with a little more force than he had wanted to, and when he turned around, Kurt had taken a few steps back.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything," Kurt said, smiling weakly. "I just wanted to help you." Seeing the look Kurt's face, Artie instantly regretted slamming his locker shut.

"Look, I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have reacted like that." He rolled forward, closing some of the distance between him and Kurt. "I guess, I've just had a tough day, and I'm sorry that I let that affect you. I shouldn't have."

"Okay, enough with the self pitying. Everyone is entitled to a bad day once in a while, and true friends don't let that affect them." Kurt smiled and handed Artie his bag. "Now you hold this while I push you to the choir room, okay?" Artie just smiled. "Yeah, okay." He took the bag from Kurt and placed it in his lap. "Thanks" he added as an afterthought.

A few minutes went by in silence. Neither of them felt the need to say anything, and both of them knew that they were going to be at least 10 minutes late for glee club. The first one to speak up was Artie.

"I'm sorry I made you late for glee club."

"Don't be. It's not like I would have been there on time anyway."

"You could just run, you know."

"And ruin my outfit. Are you crazy? You must be. This is –"

"Some crazy ass designer no one else knows about, sorry I forgot about that," Artie said, rolling his eyes and laughing. Kurt shook his head at his friend, but didn't say anything. He was just happy that Artie were laughing, even if it had to be at him.

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So? What do you think? Please leave a review! It would mean the world to me! There is going to be a few more chapters to this story (2-3) so keep checking in for more. I'm in the middle of exam prep, so I don't know how much writing time I'll have, but I promise that I'll try to get some up at least once a week :)


	2. Chapter 2

This is really short. I'm sorry, but that was the best I could do for now  
Disclaimer: No I don't own Glee. If I did, Tina and Artie would still be together and Artie's ReWalk would never have broken. What can I say. I'm an Artie-fangirl xD  
Enjoy!

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Sure enough the two boys arrived almost 15 minutes late to glee club.

"Oh, there you are. We were just about to go looking for you."

"I'm sorry Mr. Schue. It's my fau-"

"Sorry, won't happen again Mr. Schue," Kurt said, interrupting Artie mid-sentence. Instead of arguing, Artie settled with rolling his eyes at the petite boy that still had his hands firmly planted on the handles of his chair.

"Well find a seat, and we'll get started." The two boys nodded and did what they were asked, but neither seemed to be able to concentrate on the subject of the week.

_Acceptance_

Artie glared at the only word Mr. Schue had written on the white board. Acceptance of what? That he was a glee club-loser? That he got slushied on a regular basis? That because of him, the glee club needed to raise extra money whenever they were going somewhere? That he couldn't _walk_? Artie knew he was being unreasonable, and that was about the only thing holding him back from actually speaking up, but he could feel every bad feeling building up inside him, and he was afraid, that he was going to snap soon. God help the next person that called him Wheels, be it glee clubber or not, he was going to go all Santana on them, and it was not going to be pretty.

"Artie?" Tina's soft voice interrupted his slightly off track train of thoughts, and when he looked up at her he realized that she was the only one left in the room.

"Where – where did all the others go?" he asked hoarsely.

"Home. Mr. Schue dismissed us 5 minutes ago."  
"Why are you still here? Isn't Mercedes your ride?" Tina shrugged with a half smile on her face.

"I told her that I had to go look for my notebook. She's waiting out in the parking lot. We're going to the mall; do you want to go?"

He did. He really wanted to go, and not only because Tina was looking at him with such a hopeful expression on her face, but because it could be nice to spend some time with his friends outside school. The only problem was -

"I can't get into 'cedes car, Tee. Sorry." He gave her a sad smile, but her expression didn't fall at all.

"Kurt's coming too; can you get into his car?"

Artie did a mental face palm before answering. Of course Kurt was going as well.

"I think so."

"Then come on!" Tina jumped up and began to leave the room.

"Wait, Tee. I need to call my dad first. Can you wait a minute?"

"No silly," she said walking back into the room and taking hold of the handles on his chair. "I push, you call."

Artie couldn't help but smile at Tina's enthusiasm. It had been a while since they had last spend time together like this, and he couldn't wait. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pressed 2 before pressing call. He had started using speed dial once he realized how much easier it was to call someone to come and help him when the jocks had flushed his glasses out in the toilet and he had a hard time maneuvering through his contacts.

"Hey dad. No I'm fine! No dad. Seriously, can't I call without something being wrong? I just called to say that I'm going to the mall with Tina, Mercedes and Kurt. Yes dad. No dad. Okay dad. I don't know. I promise. Bye dad." Artie rolled his eyes as he ended the call and placed his phone back in his pocket.

"He is incredible."

Tina giggled, remembering Mr. Abrams tendency to worry more than necessary. She knew it bothered Artie that his dad worried more about him than about his other kids, Artie's younger siblings, so she placed a firm hand on his right shoulder, using only her left hand to push the wheelchair now. Artie, feeling the slight pull to the right as well as the hand on this right shoulder, grabbed onto his right wheel and made sure that they were going straight again. This was a technique he and Tina had perfected years ago, and he smiled at how naturally it seemed to use it again.

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Like I said, really short, but I wanted to get something up. I'll try to update sooner this time, and I've already started the next chapter! I'm also writing another story right now, so that'll take some off my time, as well as my oral exams, but I'll do my best :)  
Hope you liked it!


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